Still Alive
by Nanashi-hikage
Summary: Anima, hero of Ferelden disappeared for ten years. Back from hiding she's decided to help the Inquisition close the hole in sky with help from her old friend Shale.


_This is a Dragon Age: Inquisition story but will contain the Warden Commander as well as the Inquisitor. Anima's details will be explained during the story. Briefly all you need to know: Anima is an Antivan Elf, Ex-crow, Warden Commander/Hero of Ferelden, profession Rogue, has a pet Azazel a very small dragon (all will be explained) _

1: A waking nightmare

Anima had been missing for ten years. Three of those years she spent in Velabanchel prison in Antiva. One foolish mistake and she ended up captured by a Tevinter Mage in the service of the Crows. Cain, who knew her father Hakan, a guild-master of the crows. Being an ex-crow herself, they placed her in a cell with extra locks. To keep Anima from picking the locks, they locked her hands inside something that resembled an Iron maiden. The iron maiden contained one large spike that would pierce the centre of the hand. It was nailed to the stone floor. For three years she never saw outside the cell. They administrated a vast amount of torture. The crows knew when to stop because their orders where to make sure she doesn't die. Her father wasn't going to let her off for her 'betrayal'. He was going to break her slowly.

Velabanchel prison is impenetrable. Located by the freezing sea and swarming with seasoned assassins. During this time Azazel had remained hidden in the walls of the prison waiting for the time to move. The time for escape came in the form of a huge explosion that shattered the foundation of the earth itself. The prison sat on a mountain surrounded by the ocean, if the mountain crumbled the prison would sink into the ocean. Anima was not going to miss an opportunity like this. A shrill whistle beckoned the little red dragon to her and Azazel melted the locks of the hand sized caskets and as Anima slowly removed her blooded hands from the spikes. During all the chaos the pair made it to an armoury, where Anima stole crow armour and weapons and fled. The destruction was greater than she'd assumed, demons had broken through the veil how was beyond her but she certainly was going to stay and find out. The sound of the demon's high pitch screeching echoed across the bay as the pair made they get-a-way via boat.

After a long journey Anima found herself back in Ferelden at Soldier's Peak where she had been stationed many years ago. It was booby trapped to the extreme so her stash of treasure was bound to be untouched. It also meant that it would be safe for her to stay for a while. When it came to armour and weapons Anima collected only the fanciest and elaborate, especially where daggers were concerned.

When the events of Kirkwall occurred Anima knew things were going to change. People once again started to look for the Hero of Ferelden and apparently the Champion of Kirkwall since he had gone missing. This caused adventurers and other parties to start poking around the keep. When they started trying to deactivate the traps, Anima decided to leave. Grabbing the best of her collection and left in the dead of night. Things got worse after that, the calling. Anima slept less and less plagued by nightmares and voices whispering in her mind. The calling only happened during a blight but it was too soon for another blight.

The further west she travelled to louder and more frequent the dreams became. Anima often found herself stood on the edge of battlements staring down into the never-ending darkness claws of emerald green lunged from the shadows to pull her down.

Weeks seemed to pass. The small Warden soon started having trouble differentiating between reality and her dreams. The vast sandy dunes of the Western Approach welcomed the Warden with more questions. She saw Wardens patrolling around a fortress which she knew as Adamant. The fortress was small compared to Weisshaupt but it stood firm in the sand. It's dark jetstone walls ascended towards the skies decorated with metal ramparts, it made the fortress a force to be reckon with. Sand on one side and a steep one way ticket to the deeproads on the other. The border between humanity and depravity. The Abyssal rift. The odd thing was that accompanying the patrols were demons and even though blood magic often crept into Warden lore, it was never in this volume. Creeping around the fortress unseen was easy for the ex-crow. Anima soon found herself staring down at the Abyssal rift.

Waves of nausea washed over her. Whispers beckoning her forward became louder with every passing second she gazed down into the abyss. Was this another one of her dreams? But she would have had to fallen asleep unless this was a waking dream. Her body was so worn out from the lack of sleep the warden was having trouble differentiating between reality and her dreams.

The petite elf swayed forward as if an invisible force pulled down on her, the only thing that stopped her descent off the battlements was a wall of stone. A moving wall of stone. There were shouts echoing across the fortress but it all sounded so distant and muffled through the constant annoying voices in her head. The cool night air of the desert slowly brought Anima back to her right state of mind.

"Finally you awake"

"Shale?"

"oh, good eye" Anima sniggered, she missed the constant sarcasm that Shale possessed. Shale was a golem. They had encountered in a little village called Honnleath. After saving the village from darkspawn, Anima met a man named Matthias who had given her the correct magic phrase to awake the golem which had served as a simple stone statue in the village square.

"Put me down I can walk"

"Not wise. We're being chased by your fellow wardens and darkspawn." Anima leaned her head backwards and truer words had never been spoken. In the distance she could just make out through the sand dunes a cluster of figures running towards them but Shale's large strides were putting some distance between them.

"I owe you a lot of augmentation crystals for this"

"Perhaps I should let you throw yourself off walls more often."

Shale didn't stop running until they had were safely out of the Western Approach. Both parties were adamant not to go through Val Roeux and opted for camping out and just passing through smaller villagers. The gossip in each village was the same: The Inquisition was taking the world by storm. One second they were rebels and heretics and the next they were being invited to the Empress' Winter Place. Several names she knew popped up.

"Things are starting to get interesting Shale"

"Its going to get more interesting if these flesh creatures stop dancing around me" the golem sneered. The village folk had found Shale most interesting and despite the turmoil of the world had time to celebrate local festivals and had taken to using the golem as a may pole. Anima laughed loudly swallowing more ale.

"I think that's enough festivities for one day don't you agree Shale?" The warden unravelled the towering golem from the ribbons that bound it "Excuse me, but where would one find the Inquisition strong hold?"

"That's right. You planning to join them?"

"It sounds like they have all the help the need but two more won't hurt"

"It's up the Frostback mountain. They had started out at Haven."

"Haven't been to Haven in a while, we'll detour that way. Lets go Shale."


End file.
